In Past Show

About John Newman

Inspired by travels to Japan, Africa, and especially India, John Newman’s small and colorful abstract sculptures conjure images of fantastical sea creatures and shells with traces of assemblage, ceramics, and even jewelry. The wide range of materials the works encompass, from glass to tulle to stones, lends them a coarse texture, while their witty titles imbue a sense of playfulness. Newman is known for marrying elements of contemporary art with classical traditions and emotional content, a style born out of musings prompted by his mother’s death. “How can I make something that can bridge both the intellectually engaged formal rigor,” he asks, “and my desire to embrace and elicit an emotion without irony or without merely depending upon art historical precedence, to tackle something that [is] real?”